"As far as I know, Silent Flow is the first and still the only netlabel in Moldova" - Max Gruzin, Silent Flow RecordsI am so definitely glad to find Silent Flow Records from Moldova, and it gets more exciting for me when they agreed to be interviewed by me. This netlabel was formed in 2009 and had got worldwide attention today. It is great to have a conversation with them because they are really helpful. Max Gruzin, the founder and also administrator of this label, told me about the excitement of ambient music for them, Moldavian independent scene today, physical release condition, and the most interesting: the hard work of being the only netlabel in the country.

Can you tell me a little bit about Silent Flow? What and where is it, when did you start this, and what makes you think you have to make a netlabel?

Silent Flow is is an ambient, experimental, soundscapes netlabel based in Kishinev, Moldova. All our releases are digital, free to download and listen. Generally, Silent Flow is a community of artists who wish to release their music together with other artists of similar genre or “flow”. Our headquarters is located in the capital of a small Eastern European country between Ukraine and Romania.

It all started as a series of free music download sites in 2004, in 2006 it became an independent internet radio station and evolved into a netlabel in 2009. First Silent Flow releases were compilations of tracks from other netlabels. Artist albums and EPs appeared a bit later.

How many people running this label?

I’m the founder and administrator of the netlabel. Bogdan Bondary helps me with social networking and Kirill Kirillov is the author of many photos for covers.

How many releases do you have?

At current date with have 58 albums and EPs and 30 compilations: 88 releases in total.

How is the process of searching the band, ask them join your label, then release them? Can you tell me a little bit.

We usually don’t search for anyone. Artists send their submissions by themselves. It’s usually an album, series of tracks or unfinished demos. If it fits our label –we start working on the release. Approximately 20%-25% of submissions become a Silent Flow release.

I listened to some of your releases. Mostly I found ambient music as your specialty. Can you tell me your opinion about ambient music? How interesting is it for you?

Ambient genre is vast and diverse. Sometimes you can’t tell exactly what genre you’re listening to. As an underground label we try not to work in a well-formed genre, but experiment a lot trying to push the limits of modern music. Some releases are raw, unfinished and lack polishing. It takes time and patience to understand and enjoy these new types of music.

Yes, I feel it: need patience because I am still new listener for this types of music. I have found a lot of netlabels releasing ambient music as their specialty. Honestly, I don’t know much about ambient music. Can you tell me, How is the ambient music scene in the world as far you know?

I’ve spent a lot of time listening to ambient music. In spite of the fact that in most cases it sounds slow and repetitive, some releases can blow your mind and change your perspective. Ambient is deep, designed for sole use.

Ambient scene is larger than one might think. It is constantly growing and developing day by day. It is no longer “underground only”. There are successful commercial ambient labels and artists selling and spreading their music worldwide.

Wow, that’s informative for me. In Moldova, does ambient music become a hype? I mean, is there a lot of people love and play ambient music there?

Unfortunately ambient is not yet popular in our country. I know a few artists writing ambient, but that’s just it. I hope that will change one day.

I am so glad having this conversation with people who come from another country which is so far away from my country. And I really want to know more about independent scene in Moldova. What kind of music is happening now there? Can you mention some of bands or musicians that I should give a listen? So I will gladly browse them for sure!

Drum and bass, dubstep, techno and trance are popular, as far as I know. Moldavian independent scene isn’t formed yet. We are only at the beginning of this process. The main reason for this is that there are no communities that can have any significant influence on the scene. Usually Moldavian artists gain inspiration from other cultures.

How about gigs? I want to know how is the gigs there. Any big routine events?

Yes, we have big trance and house events, rock and jazz festivals. Underground is played only in some clubs.

I'm curious about this. Do you still believe that physical release is the best music documentation?

Physical releases have their charm. It’s nice to hold and to play a disc or a vinyl of your favorite artist on a hi-fi system. But digital form is more convenient and popular today. You can take your music wherever you want or store it on a cloud service and stream it directly from there. Physical releases become exquisite and soon will be bought only by audiophiles.

How is the physical release sales in your scene? Which one is the most people prefer in Moldova, netlabel release or physical release?

Commercial music industry is terrible here. Only ethno and some pop music releases are published and sold. In most cases Moldavians download foreign music from pirate torrent sites.

Really? Wow.. And how is the netlabel movement in your country? Is there a lot of netlabel beside you there today?

Also, terrible. As far as I know, Silent Flow is the first and still the only netlabel in Moldova.

Since you are the only netlabel in your country, how is the response from people there? Do you get enough support?

Not many of my compatriots know about the existance of this netlabel. I get much more feedback from people from other countries. Those who know - share the opinion that compilations are awesome but artist's albums and EPs need time and effort to understand. I get enough moral support from my friends, but I lack free time to make everything I plan.

Could you describe in percent. how many Moldavian artists you have in your label catalogue?

There is only one moldavian artist on Silent Flow: Megatone. That makes me sad because I get a lot of submissions from all over the world including Indonesia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Venezuela, Mongolia, Japan, Iran and many more. You got submissions from Indonesia? Could you tell me who the artist is? Did you release it too?

I really don't remember the name, but if you want, I can look through my submission archive. Unfortunately, we didn't release it because it was different from what we are doing. Submission also included live video performance. No, it’s fine. Just want to know you released it or not. Well, this is the last question. You started this label in 2009. Tell me, do you find any differences between that year this label established and current situation?

I sure do know the difference between our early releases and latest ones. We didn’t get a lot of submissions back then and were less choosy. Today we receive approximately 5-15 submissions a month while planning to release 2 or 3. As a result, our releases grew in quality.

Well, thank you for your time. Nice to know you! All the best for you!

Thank you for your interest. It’s been a pleasure answering your questions.